GRACIOUS ME!

Gracious Me!

Goodness Gracious!! 

Gracious Sakes...or gracious sakes alive!

All phrases I heard while growing up in western Kentucky. 

Such phrases were indicative of surprise. "Where has the day gone."

These days I find myself saying those same phrases I heard, especially from my grandmother, Mama Davenport. Often I add "Oh my" to the list. It's surprise with a bit of negativity laced with disappointment. Think, guilt.

Oh my, I can't keep up with ANYTHING. OK, that's an exaggeration but.....iPhone, Laptop, books, white out, things I use often and need to keep up with around the house.

Oh my, notes, are all over the house except the one I need.

Oh my, these days it takes me longer to do less.

Oh my, guilt hangs in my closet far too easy for me to reach & put on. (I know this because a sweet friend in the faith admonished me, in love of this very act,) 

How grateful I am that God's word says, 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

Gracious me.....how grateful I am for that reminder! I'm pouring my cuppa guilt-TEA down the drain.

MUCH OBLIGED

Old fashioned? Maybe.
Small Town only?  Maybe.

Southern? Probably.
Polite? Definitely!

A Daddy phrase often heard by his daughter





I will be "much obliged" if you
are patient, waiting on my next entry.

BLOG IMAGES ??

Because you asked.......most of Dotsy Details blog entry pictures are captured by an iPhone 7. Cell phones make it so much easier & more spontaneous than it did when I carried around my BIG Canon Rebel or even my smaller Canon PowerShot. The transfer from my cell phone is almost automatic.

Thus, if something catches my eye, I snap it---usually because it triggers an idea of a blog entry.

Monday's Dotsy Details entry was from two such happenings of spontaneity. The "Over Yonder" picture was taken from a napkin label in the "Over Yonder" restaurant in Valle Crucis, NC.

There was also a t-shirt for sale. Though my childhood represented the saying I didn't like the price, so I just took a picture. Looking at the picture brought back memories of a fun weekend with friends. Most pictures I take have a story.
I included a "neck of the woods" picture to emphasize direction. but then I came across the same phrase with a heart gripping story of spiritual direction. The simple wall hanging was on the door of a resident at the KDS nursing  home. Leaving the room of one of our July birthday residents I passed the door.

Standing outside the door was a woman who inquired about "my" health. As we chatted, she revealed that she was 95 and she had been visiting here weekly for the last 45 years. I assumed she was here visiting her husband, but it was her 51 year old grandson who had been a patient since he was 6 yrs. old. as result of severe injuries from an auto accident when his grandfather was at the wheel. His parents also continue to share those weeks so that family is always there. The door hanging represented the good times he had with his grandparents as a youngster--- as all of them loved camping together. She assumed that when the Lord called her home, her grandson would follow in a few months and vice versa. Until then, she thanks the Lord for all the times she has been able to have with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

I was a bundle of emotions as I left---with a heart that was both sad and glad. Sad for a family whose son/grandson had experienced so few years of mobility in life and glad that God's steadfast love & grace had been so obvious in their lives as they cared for him.

But make no mistake---if you're feeling blessed not to have such "tragedy" in your life, they feel blessed because God gave them Chris. Circumstances are secondary to their great love for him.

DIRECTIONAL DIALECTS

Do you ever wonder how God translates all our prayers. Not just in different languages but through myriads of dialects.

I grew up in a small town and we had our own vernacular. Think colloquialisms with a little regional dialect factored in, i.e. "Kentucky hick". We were the ones who didn't "chicken out" in red rover or crack the whip on the playground. One's mom could be "fixin' to" get the switch if you "din't mind" her. If your actions were really bad/disobedient she would threaten to "skin you alive" or "tan your hide".  If it were Saturday you could pretty much "reckon" that you'd be sittin' on the same pew tomorrow as you did every Sunday.

If you asked for directions, a simple finger point and the words "just down the road a piece" was only understood if you were from our "neck of the woods."

"Over yonder" was also a directional term frequently used if the place was within sight of the one giving the direction. It's just over yonder thru that field a ways.

Linguists or grammarians might describe small town talk as esoteric---but that descriptor would be too formal for our ears and one "might of" had to get out the Websters for direction to that definition.

God hears when we call out. Right into His ears regardless of language or dialect. (Psalm 18:6)

God gives understanding in a language all can understand. (Psalm 119:130)

How grateful I am that His word gives me directions I can understand.
Words that go directly to my heart.

Even if I'm "over yonder" in my thoughts, reading His word can pull me back in for godly wisdom with will give light to my path as I go the right direction.

SABBATH SNAPSHOT: beau-TEA

2/16/14 Ah-h-h...the beauty of written dialogue. The language of ordinary people in the dialect of their own time and region.

I grew up with a touch of "Kentucky hick" as my "mother tongue." Maybe not pretty to some, but familiar to me. Comforting. It's where I learned, I "reck-in," not I suppose so. "Fixin' to" was another that still rolls off my tongue. Vowels were drawn out---pronounced for a slightly longer period of time than other folks required. The "widow woman" (redundant, I now know) down the way would "sit a spell" on her porch each day. You get the idea. 

Maybe that's why I was drawn to choose the book Song of the Cardinal (1903) to read. Or maybe because both hubby and I have an affinity for bird-watching, the cardinal being a fave of this Kentucky born gal.

Most likely it was chosen because the author, Gene Stratton-Porter wrote one of my all time favorite books, Keeper of the Bees, published in 1925, the year after her death. A real "keeper" for me on my bookshelf!
Song of the Cardinal has so much "good" written below the story line as it tells of how just a beautiful bird can make a difference in the life of someone who was aging and rheumatic and could hardly put his hand to the plough.

Check out Stratton-Porter's "good" as well as beau-TEAful dialect:

• "The Cardinal had opened the fountains of his soul; life took on a new colour and joy; while every work of God manifested a fresh and heretofore unappreciated loveliness. His very muscles seemed to relax, and new strength arouse to meet the demands of his uplifted spirit." (p. 103) 
• "An' if it hadn't a-compassed a matter o' breakin' your word, what 'ud want to kill the redbird for, anyhow? Who gives you the right to go 'round takin' such beauty an joy out of the world?" (p. 134) 
• "----all full o' life 'at you ain't got no mortal right to touch 'cos God made it, an' it's His!" (p. 135) "....but God knows 'at shootin' a redbird just to see the feathers fly isn't having dominion over anything; it's jest a-makin' a plumb beast o' yerself. (p. 136) 
• "I felt most too rheumaticky to tackle field work this spring until he come 'long, an' the fire o' his coat an' song got me warmed up as I ain't been in years. .....D'you ever stop to think how full this world is o' things to love, if your heart's jest big enough to let 'em in? We love to live for the beauty o' the things surroundin' us," (p. 138) 
• "To my mind, ain't no better way to love an' worship God, 'an to protect an' appreciate these fine gifts He's given for our joy an' use.....Worshippin'....."Getting the beauty from the sky, an' the trees, an' the grass, an' the water 'at God made, is nothin' but doin' HIm homage. Whole earths a sanctuary . You can worship from sky above to grass under foot."           Well said, Mrs. Geneva "Gene" Stratton-Porter! 

Taken through my kitchen window February 2014 

Not a book for everyone but the dialect was "sorta" familiar---comforting as in days of yore.